Peace Revealed • Luke 19:28-44 • Joel McCarty

When he had said these things he went on ahead going up to

Jerusalem as he approached bethphage and Bethany, at the

place called the Mount of Olives.

He sent two of the disciples and said, go into the village ahead

of you. As you enter it, you will find a

Colt tied there on which no one had a has ever sat untie it, and

bring it. If anyone asks, you, why are you

untying it say this, the Lord needs it?

So those who were sent left and found it just as he had told

them as they were untying the Colt its owners said to them.

Why are you untying that colt? The Lord needs it.

They said, then they brought it to Jesus.

And after throwing their clothes on the cult, they help Jesus get

on it as he was going along. They were spreading their

clothes on the road. Now, he came near the path, down

the Mount of Olives. And the whole crowd of the

disciples began to Praise God, joyfully with a loud voice.

For all the Miracles they had seen blessed is the king who

comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the

highest heaven. Some of the Pharisees from the

crowd told him teacher rebuke your disciples.

He answered I tell you if they were to keep silent the stones

would cry out as he approached and saw the city he wept for it.

Saying, if you knew this day what would bring peace.

But now it is hidden from your eyes for the days will come on

you when your enemies will build a better.

Barricade around you, surround, you and hem.

Un on every side. They will crush you and your

children among you to the ground and they will not leave one

stone on another in your midst because you did not recognize

the time when God visited you. So I want you to imagine with me

for just a second as we get started, the most peaceful

setting you can think of. So, depending on who you are,

you might have a different scenario in your head.

Some of you might be thinking about a day on the beach.

The weather is perfect. It's not too crowded.

You have a great book in one hand and your favorite drink in

the other. You don't have to tell anybody

what it is. Others of you might be thinking

of a cabin on the side of a mountain somewhere.

The snow is falling Outside. The Fire is crackling inside,

and you're sitting in an oversized comfortable recliner

with not a care in the world and still others of you might be

thinking of something, maybe a little noisier but still what

you would describe as peaceful. Maybe you imagine sitting at

your favorite restaurant, their best entree and front of you.

Someone else is picking up the bill.

Bill and you're surrounded by your closest friends and a table

full of laughter and joy. Peace this morning.

We're going to spend a few minutes looking together at this

idea of Peace as revealed for us by the person of Jesus.

Now, when we think of Peace often, we primarily think of

maybe the absence of conflict, a place of safety and sitting in

the midst of a bunch of things that make us happy.

And that's not a bad vision and those are not bad desires.

However, I would argue that the pathway to peace is not seeking

to attain enough status or wealth, where you can kind of

manufacture and create enough peaceful settings in your life

and rid your world of any disturbances.

Because as we all know and have experienced, even when we try

our best to create or manufacture piece, things that

are out of our control can very quickly disrupt that however, if

our peace is found not in experiences, but rather in a

person, what we might just find is that there is a peace offer

to us that cannot be disturbed or taken away.

But the path to that piece might be much different than we'd ever

imagined. So good morning again, church is

always, as I said earlier, it is a joy to be gathered with you.

As I mentioned earlier, my name is Joel, and I have the

privilege of serving as the pastor for preaching and

oversight here, continue to be a prayer for Kevin.

Perry our pastor for shepherding, he and his wife

Kris are still in Africa on a mission support trip, supporting

some friends of theirs and they hope to A kind of head back this

way. Saturday.

They might make it next Sunday, we don't know.

I told him. Don't feel like you have to.

I know it's Easter but it's all right.

You don't get extra points docked off because you missed

Easter. So go listen to last week's

sermon if you don't like that. Alright, anyways, as you can

see, we're taking a break from our series through Hebrews,

which will pick back up after Easter, were kind of spinning

two weeks, which will do this some years to look at the last

week of the life of Jesus as narrated by Luke's gospel the

last week of Jesus. His life is traditionally called

Holy Week. Now depending on if you grew up

in church at all or what church tradition, you grew up in, you

might be like, more familiar with Holy Week than I am.

Some of you if you grew up Baptist like me, you have no

idea what it is, and you just think it's a Catholic thing.

And so you're like, I don't even want to know, but holy week is

simply part of the liturgical church calendar, which is a very

helpful tool for Christians, that just reminds us about

different times of Jesus life. And this week, specifically is

for the purpose of us. Slowing, Down and reflecting on

the Life, Death burial and resurrection of Jesus.

What I want to do is give you a quick rundown of the significant

days of Holy weeks to kind of ground Us in the larger context.

So four main significant days in holy week.

So the first one is Palm Sunday. That is what today is on the

church calendar, it's the week before Easter.

And so, that is the day, when Jesus, it's called Palm Sunday,

because Jesus rode his triumphal entry, as people were waving,

palm branches, and they were late.

On the ground as Jesus enters. Jerusalem known commonly again

is the triumphal entry. Then you have Maundy Thursday,

okay, it gets its name on D from the word mandate or command and

it's the new command that Jesus gives his disciples.

This is Thursday the day before Jesus was crucified, if you

remember, it was when Jesus was in the upper room with his

disciples, most people call it the Last Supper, you might have

seen popular paintings on that on this night.

He institute's the Lord's Supper, he washes the feet of

his disciples and he gives them the new Date to love one another

as he had loved them. It's what we remember every week

when we take communion here at new Eden, the death and burial,

the death, and burial of Jesus, then there's good Friday, which

was the day of Jesus crucifixion, the day that he is

placed on a cross to die for the sins of the world.

Now, it seems like an oxymoron to call that day good.

But when you know, what comes on Sunday, it makes sense because

Sunday is what is traditionally called Easter or Resurrection.

Day, call it what you want. Want, I really don't care.

It's the day. Jesus got up out of the grave

and beat Death, hell and sin. So we're going to celebrate it

regardless of how you want to do that.

So in this series for the first week, we're kind of zooming in

at Palm Sunday and next week, we'll be looking at Resurrection

Sunday. I do encourage there's plenty of

resources, online, if you want me to direct you to some, to

kind of spend some time, maybe with your family, or community

group, looking at some of the other days, but we're kind of

just sandwich here in between the two.

And so, we're calling this two-week series revealed.

The idea of this series is the unveiling of Jesus.

That's what the eyes open. Are some people have told me, it

looks like something out of a horror movie, so if that's what

you thought, I'm sorry, I don't know.

We didn't spend much time. It's a two-week Series, so don't

put too much thought into it. Their eyes are big and open and

I thought they were pretty, not scary, but whatever that might

say more about y'all than me, some All right, so what where we

get this name reveals from the at the in Luke's gospel?

What you'll see in the couple weeks were in here especially

towards the end there is this theme.

This recurring theme of people who physically see something

with their eyes. They're staring something in the

face, but they fail to really understand what's going on.

And Jesus will even directly tell them that they failed to

recognize what is actually in front of them.

As you heard read a moment ago, the Pharisees are told that they

don't know what brings about actual piece because they Failed

to recognize the time that God himself, visited them.

And so today, in the time, we have left, we're going to see

how true peace is revealed for us in the person of Christ.

If we can only recognize what is staring Us in the face.

So the first thing about peace, we're going to look at is this

the promise of peace. The promise of peace.

So to understand peace is defined for us by Jesus.

We must first understand a little bit about the world in

which Jesus lived. Peace was not a foreign concept.

It was actually a very trendy idea for the the the context in

which Jesus lived, the life of Jesus took place in a culture

where the Roman Empire was in charge and had experienced

relative success. This time is referred to in

history as the Pax Romana, which meant the piece of And Rome

experienced in one sense, an idea of peace and they they

touted and promise this idea of social peace to their citizens

at least as long as they fell in line with their promise and

their proposed ideals. The issue is that if you study

deep enough, this piece was selectively offered.

And it came at the expense of many who were enslaved and

oppressed and kept under the thumb of those in political

Empower and even for those who are on the right side of this

piece, those that experienced this temporary peace.

That was the problem. It was temporary.

It only lasted go study history for another couple hundred

years. This piece was not eternal.

So that's the broad social context but not only that,

there's the religious context, there's another institution of

the day that promised peace and that was the religious system.

This old Covenant Jewish system that had the temple life at its

Center. It promised that one could have

peace with God if enough rules and regulations would just be

followed. However, this idea of Peace was

also selectively offered. It was kept tightly guarded by

the Just Gatekeepers of the day who determine who was in and who

was out and who was kept on the outside and on the fringes.

And so, just like the social power of the Romans, came

through political, sorry, the social piece of the Romans came

through political power. This piece came through a

religious power, and again, it would not last in this exact

passage Jesus actually. Prophesized the destruction of

the temple in just 40 under 40, short years from them.

So there's the promise of social peace from Rome, the promise of

religious piece from the old Covenant Temple system in the

religious leaders. But if we look closely and if we

have eyes to see will also see that there was always a promise

of real peace from Yahweh. The god of the Bible who

promised peace, not just to a select few, but to the entire

world, well, before Jesus ever became incarnate and was born,

look back with me to the Old Testament.

I'll have it on the screen for you Zechariah. 9:9 And verses 9

Zechariah 9:9

through 10. And this is a prophecy about a

Yahweh who would bring peace. And it says Rejoice greatly, o

daughter, Zion shout and Triumph daughter Jerusalem.

Look, your king is coming to you.

He is righteous and Victorious. Humble and riding on a donkey,

on a Colt. The foal of a donkey I will cut

off The Chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Elam.

So so the Chariot from Ephraim horse from Jerusalem.

There's no more need for for items of war and instruments of

war. The bow of War will be removed

and he will Proclaim peace to Israel.

Wait, no. Peace to the nation's.

His Dominion will extend the borders of German away from sea

to Sea from the Euphrates river to the ends of the Earth.

Long ago, there had been a promise of peace that would

extend not just for a select few.

Not for those with military might or who were born into the

right family but rather to the ends of the Earth.

Not based on social status or ethnicity, or class or

genealogy. And there were those who had

been longing and waiting patiently for this piece to

come. Especially those who were The

Outsiders in Rome and The Outsiders among the religious

Elite, those who have been oppressed and kept on the

margins longed for a leader who would come and in war, and

strife, and poverty, and Division and Usher in peace.

But what would it look like when it arrived?

And how would it unfold? And this is the context.

In which we find the story of Palm Sunday.

These are the cultural pressures that Jesus lived and was born

into on purpose, based on the Sovereign plan of God.

When the right time came Jesus entered As in t right calls.

It it was The Perfect Storm. Our story today takes place at

the end of Jesus ministry. By this point, there were many

followers of Jesus who had read the Old Testament scriptures and

really believe that this was the Messianic King, the long-awaited

Messiah, who would bring peace, he had he had proved it by

Healing The Sick and raising the dead and even forgiving sins.

And not only that people heard and watched as he stood up to

those in power protesting against worldly ideas of peace.

And I include the religious Elite in that worldly,

understanding political religious power, only offered to

the select few Jesus with his life and with his lips, he

protested against that. And so now as the pressure

mounts, no more hiding who Jesus is The tension begins to rise

and Jesus begins his descent toward Jerusalem.

Now, we don't know if the crowds fully understood probably some

did and probably some didn't, but they knew something was up,

but Jesus knew what he was headed toward.

Not peace, but a conflict, and a conflict that was greater than

anything. The world has ever known.

We saw first, the promise of peace and now we see the path of

peace. Culturally.

During this time, when a warrior king would conquer a city that

king would then ride into the city with a huge procession.

No, expense would be spared. The red carpet would be rolled

out the bands would play. The dancers would dance.

And people would line the street, the king's subjects,

both old and new would line the pathway and begin to cheer, and

chant, probably some out of joy and some out of fear because

They didn't want to be squashed too and they would give honor

and allegiance to the king. this was the expectation, but the

reality of this King and this entrance is much different Jesus

sends his followers, not to get a war horse. but a donkey, A

humble animal not revered or looked highly upon, but

typically only used by those who couldn't afford a horse, but

still these people so badly. Want to believe that this is the

warrior king that always dreamed of.

And so they begin to chant a line from an old poem from Psalm

118, which is where Luke 1938 comes from blessed.

And the palm, the, the poem from Psalm says, blessed is he who

comes in the name of the Lord, and they insert themselves.

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.

This is the king. We've always waited for Psalm

118 was a Messianic, Psalm about a one who would come in and save

the people and destroy the powerful enemies.

Save the people. So in other gospels, they cried

out Hosanna, which means save us now And Jesus is fulfilling this

Psalm of destroying his enemies. Just not in the way we might

expect. Because he loves them.

He really is the one prophesied back in Zechariah 9, who would

come humble and mounted on a donkey and this had to throw

everyone for a loop. All they had known were worldly

ways of Peace achieved through Power and dominance and stamping

out any insurrectionist, who would dare stand up to us, but

Jesus rides into town on a donkey on a path full of

tattered. Worn coats, Cheered on by

Misfits and outcasts. And in doing this he is staging

a protest against worldly understandings of peace.

As we think of the crowd who most likely most of them, we

don't know for sure but most of them probably envisioned.

Something drastically different from this self-proclaimed

Messiah. I mean he had healed the sick

and raise the dead. Surely he can go in and

overthrow the Roman rulers and oppression and end it. and as we

think about this, we have to ask ourselves, which Jesus, we are

comfortable with following Do we want the warrior king who comes

riding in with the military might political strength and

religious Authority? Or are we okay with following a

king into humility and meekness? A Shepherd, who protest against

our worldly understandings of Peace?

How often do we want? A king who will just conquer our

foes? Give us Comfort security,

wealth, happiness and everything.

We want we could even get passionate and cheer this King

on. We can even be excited about

this King that we fashioned in our mind.

But are we still willing to follow him down?

The path of Peace? If it means losing our life, And

walking into humility and even death.

Are we willing to lay down our most cherished rights for the

lives of others or do we cling onto them?

Do we follow the politicians of the day?

The religious leaders of the day or the influential wealthy Elite

over the ways of Jesus because when you follow Jesus, it comes

at the iron and persecution of others.

Jesus said, if you think they're not going to hate you like they

hated me. Surely they're going to hate my

followers. Do we just want him to be what

we want him to be? Where we have fashioned?

A Jesus we like and hear how here's how you know?

And I know if I'm beginning to Fashion, a Jesus and make him in

my image instead of being conformed to his, here's how

this works. Jesus hates everyone.

We hate and loves everyone. We love He always agrees with

our political talking points. He always has the same standards

and rules for all Christians that we have.

And if this is our Jesus, we're not worshiping Jesus, we're

worshipping ourselves. This is one response to Jesus

and his path of peace that we might find ourselves tempted to

follow. There's another path that of the

religious Elite In this passage the religious Elite even come to

Jesus, a silence the crowd, calm them down and Jesus refuses,

because even if the crowd is a little confused, at least

they're they're they're like on the right path and this

religious Elite. They had their agreement with

Rome that they could keep their social status and Power in the

religious sphere as long as there were no uprisings no

self-proclaimed Messiahs. Let's just keep the peace.

The only problem is that, keeping peace is different than

making peace. And Jesus was here to make peace

for all regardless of the disturbance it required.

Some of us want to soft in Jesus, make him palatable so we

can kind of just maintain some peace with the powerful cultural

and social leaders, and influencers of the day.

But the pathway of following Jesus doesn't allow for that.

The gospel will bring offense at one point or another.

I'm not saying we should just be jerks, that's not the point.

I don't blame it on. Well gospel, just defensive and

you're a well you're a jerk. I'll say that word instead of

something else. The gospel will bring offense.

the message of Jesus Can't Be Tamed or water down and at some

point unnecessarily, it will come into conflict with the way

of the world and the way of religious systems, it is a whole

new kingdom and the question is not if it's willing to conform

to what we want it to, but if we're willing to forsake

everything and conformed to Christ, even if we lose the

world, the crowd continues to cheer as Jesus nears closer to

Jerusalem. He knows where he's headed.

As Jesus rides on the back of the Donkey.

And it comes over the ridge, he can see in the distance, the

city of Jerusalem, what represented, the center of

religious life for his people. The chosen ones through whom God

wanted to bless the world. You would expect as Jesus gets

closer to this conflict that he would egg on the chance as you

watch Caitlin, Clark do when she hits a big shot.

Let's go. Some of y'all know I'm talking

about some. Y'all don't need a much more

women's basketball. Can I get an?

Amen. All right, we got one.

You would expect him to egg on the chance, maybe gain some

momentum, as he heads toward the city.

But for those in the crowd who took a long enough break from

the frenzy and the chance to notice, if they look close at

Jesus, they would have seen a shocking scene. instead of his

head held high and pride and confidence, our text tells us

that Jesus begins to weep in the Greek this is not just a few

tears kind of that roll down his face, this is a violent sobbing

emotionally overwhelmed filled with filled with grief and

sadness because he knows that he has been rejected by his own,

this is Yahweh, God, in flesh, Emmanuel, God With Us, Jesus the

creator of the world Weeps And he's not sad for his own sake.

But for there's he knows what is to come and it Grieves him he

says Jerusalem I would have loved to have gathered you but

you would not if only you knew what would bring peace but

you're not recognizing the time when God himself visited you

you're missing what's staring you in the face?

And I hate it because God is not willing that any should perish.

And Jesus, sadly prophetically predicts.

What would come true in about 40 short years, the temple would be

destroyed and the piece that they were trying.

So hard to juggle and maintain, and that's why they reject Jesus

in other passages. If you don't get rid of Jesus,

they're gonna come, take away your place and your nation and

we can't lose that. We got to maintain that.

And in trying to keep their own Earthly Kingdom, they missed out

on the kingdom of God. And in the end they lost both.

When we try to gain the world, we lose our soul.

And you lose the world, too. as c.s.

Lewis said, aim at heaven and you will get her thrown in a

matter. Jesus sobs because he knows that

real lasting Eternal. Peace is not found in a

revolution but in the revelation of God has revealed in the man

Christ Jesus. To those who reject him.

He says some of the saddest words Would you have known what

brought peace. You did not recognize the time

when God visited you. They wanted a religious and

political leader. And what they missed was that

God, in flesh, was in their midst, visiting them and

offering true, and ultimate piece.

But they did not have eyes. And this is the last thing.

We'll see. We saw the promise of Peace.

The pathway of peace. And now we see the person of

peace. See, peace is not ultimately

found in creating tranquil scenes for ourselves.

Peace is ultimately found in a person But peace does not come

without division first, hope does not come without loss.

Joy does not come without grief life, does not come without

death, and Easter does not happen without Good Friday.

Jesus knew that piece for the world would require Conflict for

him. Require him to go into the

greatest battle. Ever fought against sin and the

enemy and he would have to crawl up on a cross and died for the

sins of the world because the ultimate peace that we all need

the we there's nothing wrong with Desiring peace in the here

and now but the ultimate peace, we need is not to either be

freed from our oppressors or to join sides with them and

overthrow our Amy's. The ultimate, peace.

We need is peace with God and our sin has kept us from that.

Not only has it affected us as individuals.

It's infected the entire Cosmos like the world is groaning to be

restored because it is broken. Wars divisions school, shootings

and death and sickness and pain. But Jesus, did not stay distant

from that. He came to deal with the

ultimate problem and that is the story of Good Friday.

He is beaten and mocked stripped naked and made ashamed.

A crown of thorns shoved into his head and anyone watching

would have thought of this seen as bringing anything but peace.

Where was the army? Where were the soldiers?

Who's going to overthrow the Roman rule?

We thought he was the one. Who's going to usher in peace?

And the revolution seems to be an utter failure as he gasped

for breath on the cross. He cries out asking his father,

my God. My God, why have you forsaken

me? He was willing to enter into

that division. From his own father so that we

might be brought into peace and Union with God.

Eventually takes his last breath.

He's placed in a borrowed tomb, to rot.

On, Holy Saturday. He lays silent in the grave

Resting on the Sabbath, just as God did in the original

creation. His Jesus is bringing a new

creation and he lays in a rock hewn out of the Earth.

But on Resurrection morning. The stones begin to cry out and

the Earth opens up and gives way to the Son of God and the peace,

bring her walks out of the Tomb alive and it is through his

death that he brings life. It is through his grief that he

offers Joy. It is through his sacrifice that

he offers healing. It is through his division that

he offers peace. And this is the story of the

person of Peace. It's about the Life, Death,

burial. And resurrection of Jesus is

what we hinge everything on its, what Christians commonly called

The Gospel, or the good news, because that's what it is.

And this is the invitation to you because of the work of

Christ. No matter what family, you were

born into. No matter what you've done, no

matter your marital status, no matter your income level.

The invitation is to come find peace at the table of Jesus.

He is the piece that we're longing for when we try to fill

the void with things of this age, it is offered in Christ.

He is where true peace is found. So, wherever you find yourself

today, maybe you identify with the crowds or the Pharisees,

however, you've responded to Jesus in the past.

Whether you fully understood his way or not, right here, right

now. Peace is offered to you because

ultimate piece is revealed in the beautiful face of Jesus and

it's a peace that the world did not give so the world cannot

take it away. And when we surrender to this

when we quit trying to clamor and try to have control and

power and might and we surrender our eyes are opened and we

recognize the time that God has visited us in Christ when we see

a God Who Weeps? Because he loves you that much,

you can't stay the same. We say I'll follow you anywhere,

we'll go into death. Let's go sometimes through tears

and weeping and crying. Dean.

But we walk into humility lost surrender, weeping even death

because we know that Joy life and peace await on the other

side. And, you know, the proof of that

it's Easter morning, the resurrection of Jesus is What's

called the first fruits, that means, they're more to come.

There will be actual real peace when Jesus returns like

tangible. Like you can chill by the fire

and the snow falling outside, whatever is for you, he's

preparing to place. For you, well, whatever it is

like, that's real, that's coming.

But then, the big thing about it is that Jesus, the Blazing Glory

of Christ will be at the center of it.

All. There will be no more need for

sun because the glory of Christ is brighter than any Earthly

son. School shootings.

Will end Wars will cease? Guns will be turned to garden

tools, instruments of death will be transformed to instruments of

life. Death will turn to life, ashes

will turn to beauty, and tears, crying, Prejudice, poverty,

despair racism, all of it will be eradicated and cast outside

the kingdom of Shalom. The kingdom of peace.

I'll because of a humble King who lived I buried in was rose

again. And so in the here, and now we

want to see Kingdom Come burst forth into the presence and give

a snapshot a picture and appetizer, a foretaste of the

feast that is coming. That's why we gather on Sundays

church because she just got out of the grave and we're going to

celebrate forever. It's going to be vibrant life

getting. This is just a picture of for

taste. Our lives are the protest to the

world showing where true peace can be found a peace.

That passes worldly. Understanding that says it, does

it make sense? And we point them to Jesus and

said you're right, it doesn't. But for God, our hope is not in

money. Fame political religious power,

might, but rather in a crucified and risen Messiah.

So on this Palm Sunday, maybe reflect on the promise of Peace.

Offer to us. The pathway of peace that were

invited to walk. And the person of Peace Jesus

who gave his life to Ransom and redeem us.